Quarter Note Triplet vs. 16th Note Music Pattern

Introduction

While recording at the studio this week, I was discussing with the producers about two common drum patterns, that people often get mixed up. It's a very subtle difference, but they challenged me to go home and to look at it more thoroughly, so I did. I created each drum pattern in MIDI and compared them.  I also wrote out the beat in sheet music to help me see the difference. In this article, I included an mp3 track of 4 measures of each drum pattern so you can listen to the difference.

1. 16th Note Music Pattern

Notice that each of the notes are eighth notes, and are aligned on a 16th note grid. Very simple beat.

2.  Quarter Note Triplet Pattern

The most interesting part of this is the kick drum in the first two beats, so I cut out the last two beats. Notice that the grid is locked on triplets.

3. Comparison of Beats on a 16th Note Grid

So I lay the two on each tracks next to each other to compare them. Lo and behold, they're different.

The top beat in green is the triplet quarter notes. Notice how the notes don't line up at all on the 16th note grid? The 16th note pattern is in red.

4. Comparison of Beats on a Triplet Grid

This is similar to the graphic above, except this is on a triplet grid. Surprisingly, the red 16th note pattern lines up within the lines.

5. Sheet Music Notation Comparison

I used TuxGuitar guitar tab notation to write this sheet music. It allows me to tab drum beats.

6. Conclusion

I love music and since I've started college, I haven't had many opportunities to nerd out and analyze small music details like this. I wanted to document what I learned, and specifically share this with my band, because one of our songs has a beat like this. We've been guilty of playing both of the beats in the same run through of the song. So hopefully this will help us pick one, and stick with it. I personally like the 16th note pattern better. I feel like it's heavier.